Stay With Me
by ovp
Summary: Elsa brings back Daniel. Only he's not.


**_Inspired by the song Stay With Me by Sam Smith_**

_Author Disclaimer: "Once Upon a Time," the characters, and situations depicted are the property of Adam Horowitz, Edward Kitsis, Kitsis/Horowitz, and ABC Studios. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment not monetary purposes. Previously unrecognized characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. This site is in no way affiliated with "Once Upon a Time," ABC, or any representatives of the actors._

* * *

Elsa brings back Daniel.

Only he's not.

He's made of snow and ice and everything cold and bleak that covers their town and she can't blame the girl who has no control over her powers but she also can't understand how she managed to produce an exact replica of her beloved. And it would be a simple thing if it was the cruel, monstrous Daniel that Whale had made the one hell bent on hurting others and driven by rage, but it's not, it's her Daniel; her sweet Daniel; her kind Daniel; her devoted Daniel who stands in the diner, as she sits on the farthest stool as far away from the other citizens as possible. It's a Daniel who asks if she is okay while the entire town gapes at him in much the same way Regina does.

Nobody knows Daniel, they know of him - vaguely - from Henry's storybook or Snow White rendition of the events that led Regina down the path to becoming the Evil Queen (through really it's none of their damn business nor their story to share) but the one fact that everyone can agree on is that the man is irrefutably dead - only he's not.

What sort of powers does the Snow Queen possess? Elsa had made that wretched singing snowman and those ice beasts but human life? The question 'how' rings hollow in her head but the one that yells loudly drowning out all other thoughts is 'why?' Why? WHY? **WHY?** Now she must suffer the appearance and inevitable disappearance of her Daniel because he is snow and eventually summer will come, when they figure out how to help Elsa, and then he will be no more. Has she not suffered enough?

The blonde Queen stands at the open door hands up and terrified. She looks between Regina, her hands, and the stableboy helplessly as if even she does not know what has ignited his phantom shape. Many of the other patrons just stare between the man of snow and the woman, who many have said was the actual one with the heart of ice, even though it beat painfully in her chest starved of warmth and affection. Unexpectedly Robin's eyes find hers and not so unexpectedly his wife clings to his arm but those blue depths mirror a broken horror because he knows better then anyone just how much this must hurt her and what the return of one's first love means - how can they be kindred spirits even in this? Another reminder that in some ways they are both their other halves for this trial they too will share.

Only hers doesn't have a happy ending. Because it's Daniel - but it's not.

Daniel's cold fingers brush her cheek and she immediately feels Robin eyes clawing at her from where he sits as she falls off the stool with an indignant squawk, no grace or poise, just deep cold shock for that brief action makes him real. Too real. But it is from her prostrate position on the floor that she sees it and the dread in her stomach hardens into something stiff and heavy, Daniel, her beautiful Daniel, is standing in a slowly growing puddle.

"Out!" she barks standing sharply pointing at the door. Daniel looks at her confused. "Out! Out!" And when he still doesn't move, because Gods he never took her orders even when he was their stableboy, she grabs his wrist and yanks him through the door and out into the blistering cold - frantically patting at him, checking for soft spots and drips - and is this what she deserves a melting love?

"Regina?" he questions and she shivers because her coat is inside, and only because her coat is inside and not because she has longed to hear his, this, voice. "How am I alive?"

She deflates because even he knows he should be by all accounts be dead. "I…" the wind brutally rips through her, "I don't know. Daniel, I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry," he smiles softly frigid fingers combing through her hair and she can't believe this. Her tongue too large to form words as the intimacy of the action only makes her cold in places that have no purpose being cold. He places his forehead to hers and she is more then aware that they most likely have an audience - and no she will not share this with them. But Elsa soon joins her fluttering and nervous,

"Regina I -"

"No need dear." Her breath catches in her throat. "We'll…we'll figure this out." But her assertions sound flat and empty even to her ears and frantic girl shakes her head gripping her elbow with icy fierceness.

"I never would have." It's never anyone's intention apparently to hurt it; it just always ends up being her.

"It's fine." Even though it's not. Nothing is fine.

* * *

Emma and Snow White are naively happy at this turn of events, satisfied that everything and everyone is in order and now Regina can have her happy ending and forgive them; only it's not. (She knows Snow knows it too but the woman has no idea she already lost him twice.) They don't understand. Daniel is made of snow. Daniel is snow and ice and he will melt. He will leave. It's a cruel, cruel, knife that fate has slid inside her ribcage for she cannot love this snow Daniel, cannot accept his words of comfort and reassurance. She cannot love her precious stableboy whose memory has been tainted by the fact that he does not eat, sleep, or breathe. He is no better than a snowy corpse come to spurn her, for even touching him melts his surface. She cannot love him for all the love she has the capacity to give cannot go someone who is not real.

(What Emma and Mary Margaret do not see David does. He's watched her lose Daniel once already so when she crumbles and cries, and lets the weight of her misery, the fact she cannot have her true love nor her first love, he holds her quietly and doesn't feed her false promises. Just holds the surprisingly frail, broken Queen to his chest in the middle of the Charming's apartment.)

Daniel remains outdoors while she stays inside, her and Rumpelstilskin trying to puzzle out how Elsa has accomplished this. They find no solution; beyond he is snow and somehow Elsa has the ability to breath consciousness into the substance in the form of a deceased man. But Daniel can't just stay outside in her yard, like a lawn ornament, so she leans out her kitchen window and smiles at him sadly.

"Would you like to go riding?"

His eyes brighten.

* * *

It's been years since she's been on a horse, she hasn't even been to the stables since she had to kill the angry, distraught Daniel with her own hands. She can't bring herself to breathe the air of the place but it's cold enough that he can work, back bending and body dancing the steps of his trade with ease; his skill still not lost even after all this time. He easily prepares the horses as she watches from the stable's open doors as he leads a white mare towards her.

"Her name is Snowflake." She snorts rolling her eyes as she hoists herself into the saddle. Only Daniel would find humor in this.

"I haven't ridden in years."

He tsks gently. "You were always a fantastic rider. I doubt it has changed." He hoists himself onto his steed one that whinnies at the sudden cold. "Besides I have heard talk of a bicycle in this realm." She clucks her tongue in mirth.

They spur the horses together and race across the snow, wind battling her clothes and hair. Months ago, years ago, she longed for this, riding through the fields again with Daniel showing him the wonders of this realm without magic. When she first arrived some part of her had quietly hoped she could. But now he can never try chocolate or coffee or feel the warmth of a fire nor understand the ingenuity of electricity and plumbing. These wonders are lost on him for he is a vessel holding the last shreds of her humanity and hope for when he leaves this time there will be nothing left of her.

He is right in that she can still ride and they race the length of the whole field numerous times before she attempts some low jumps, earning a cheer from Henry who watches excitedly from behind a fence and even Snow's eyes shine with admiration, Neal cradled in her arms.

"May I ask you something?" The wind whips the words away but Regina smiles at Daniel, a sparse carefree smile of youth and freedom because she can bless him with those. He deserves those. "Henry… if I had lived, would he have been my son?" The word that immediately jumps into her head is _yes, yes, yes a thousand times yes_, but the word that rests on her tongue is different because she was not crafted for Daniel and their love has always been doomed to failure. She sees Daniel with children but she does not see herself beside him nor does she see herself in the small children she imagines. She sees them blonde hair, blue eyed, pudgy, happy but she cannot paint herself into the portrait. She will always love Daniel but if he were to stay, like the obnoxious snowman with his personal flurry (micro-climates appear to be another one of Elsa's undecipherable powers), she does not know if she could love him. She wants a partner not a snowman and having tasted that sort of commitment from a man who lived amongst the trees, who wanted a family and love and warmth the same way she craved for caring, and acceptance, she finds Daniel could not ever be the father of Henry he is from a different time, a different life; a different her.

The cold air burns her lungs as she breathes it in with shaking gasps.

"I don't know." She looks at Daniel he's been a reprieve from her grief, the grief of having her soulmate ripped from her by the semantics of long gone unions. "I love you Daniel but you aren't real." He is a distraction, welcome or unwelcome, and she wonders if he is the only thing holding her together at the moment

He contemplates her words. "I haven't been real for a while have I?"

"When," she swallows fiercely as they trot side by side, "when my mother crushed your heart that was when we should have both let go. I'm sorry. I turned myself into a monster…trying to..."

"You're not a monster Regina."

She closes her eyes because only he would say that and see it and not be haunted by her atrocities. "Kind words." He smiles, snow cheeks cresting with the action his snow white hair displaced by riding. She swallows again. "You can't stay."

"I know," he sighs eyes squinting at something over their shoulders at the tree line as they approach those along the fence. "But what will happen if I leave?"

"I'll survive." She always has.

"Surviving is not living Regina," he points out as he helps her dismount and passes her hands to her son who animatedly asks when he can learn how to ride like her. "You always struck me as someone who wanted to live."

* * *

It astonishes her how a voice that for over a year brought her comfort and joy now cuts her with fierce misery as Robin slides onto the stool beside her at the diner and orders them both a whiskey.

"What do you want Robin?"

He shrugs staring into the glass placed before him before pushing it away. "I'm not even sure." He pauses weighing the words. "This was never my intention."

"I know."

"If I had known I never would have -"

"Can you love me?" She interrupts because whatever apology he is offering means little if that basic emotion is not there. She wants no apology if the end result will always be the same - her alone and unloved.

"The problem is not whether I can love you," he says carefully, "but whether I cannot."

How did things get so messed up? How did her happiness turn into acidic poison for her and her true love…loves? Everything she loves suffers. "You're a good and honorable man, aren't you Robin Hood?" She questions downing her glass of whiskey before turning to finally meet him to eye to eye. They both have a past which defines them. They both belong to others. They both are destined.

"Yes."

She let's out a huff slumping her shoulders. "The old ways, the Enchanted Forest, it was a different way of life we were born into. I can't blame you for following its customs - it took murder to free me from their bonds." She drops his gaze. "But you aren't me. You're honorable and good."

His teeth grind and jaw tightens. "It's all about timing."

"Our time has passed," she utters placing some money on the counter between them.

"It's not impossible." His fingers wrap around her wrist gently forcing her gaze to again fall to his. "Regina, please hope."

"Then don't approach me. I'm not strong enough for that."

"Daniel is made of snow m'lady."

"And your wife is made of flesh and blood with a heart of pure gold beating in her breast. Love her well."

Daniel is outside when she leaves, staring off into the distance at the snow covered hills; they still haven't found a way to control Elsa's powers but they're closer, a portal to send her home, and the hope of finding her beloved sister spurning them onwards. They also hope that the Snow Queen's departure will free their town from the dark, cold days that cling to the land like an ominous cloak.

"Good evening."

She laughs. "Hello."

"Fancy company?" He offers her his arm and she places a hand in the crook of his elbow, it's too cold for her to wrap her arm through his and she worries that too much contact may melt him.

"How did you get so good?"

"I doubt anyone is ever truly good." He leads her on the walk towards her home. "Courting beautiful ladies above my station was mostly frowned upon in polite society."

"I loved you for it."

"Exactly, but that did not make it right. It's a grey zone."

"I wish the town would see it that way," she sighs before continuing in a mocking tone, "she's the Evil Queen and that's all she'll ever be."

"I think the town recognizes your effort though. I most certainly appreciate it." He pauses. "This realm fits you."

Regina rolls her eyes. "Are you flirting with me stableboy? I think I might be too old for you."

"You're crying, Regina."

"Ah." She laughs, big gaping gasps of mirthless misery. An arm wraps around her shoulders and she shivers from the contact - at least she thinks it's the contact. "Nothing went right after you died." And her fingers curl into his side harshly. "Everything went so, so wrong. I went wrong." She stares at the empty house ahead of her with a hard gaze. "I'm wrong."

"As someone who came back wrong once already I have to say you seem fine to me."

"You always were a terrible judge of character."

He laughs this time before he sobers. "I'm glad I got to see you again. I'm glad."

"So that's it then? Elsa could..."

"I don't belong here."

"I…" Her voice catches, heavy with trepidation. "I want you to stay."

"I think that would hurt you more, Regina. I'm not who you need. This isn't love - not anymore."

Her leather gloves scrub furiously at her tear stained face. "I must look terrible."

His lips quirk snowy hands resting on her cheeks as he examines her features. "I don't see it." Neither comments on what he may or may not be looking for. They're standing in her front yard and snow falls softly around them. Daniel's always been too perceptive for her liking; she always tends to love men who can read her way too easily. "I need you to promise me that you'll try."

All she can do is hug Daniel and crush herself against him until her whole body turns numb.

* * *

Inevitably they find a way to unite Elsa with her sister and the ice herder, ice harvester Kristoff corrects, but she's not one for petty titles; and why do they even need ice they have a Queen who can produce it with a snap of her fingers? Turns out they were in a frozen Arendelle all along and Elsa now has two rambunctious nephews to deal with along with an entire kingdom.

She wipes the sweat from her brow with her quickly moistening shirt sleeve as she struggles to maintain the portal between worlds, a swirling vortex requiring a constant input of magic to sustain it; a tunnel between two realms. She watches, self-satisfied, as green returns to the frozen landscape and spring blooms in Storybrooke. Elsa steps beside her delicately, as Emma yells at Kristoff if he would like to be left alone with his stupid reindeer as he narrates thanks on behalf of the animal, and whispers. "Would you like a flurry, for -" she gestures to Daniel who smiles but looks entirely out of place in the quickly greening landscape of Storybrookw.

"Did you ask him?"

"Yes." She pauses. "He said no."

Regina's stomach bottoms out because that's it. It's the end. Finally. No more Daniel. No more cold fingers and nights laying in the snow beside the sleepless man shivering as she stares at the stars and he points out the constellations. No more distraction. She does not love him but she loves him deeply but this is his choice and she's learned to let her loved ones make their own choices.

"Then no."

"Regina," she asks again, "I inadvertently created him I…you've helped me so much."

"I didn't help you for Daniel," she sighs black spots dotting her vision. "I helped because of Daniel," she let's herself think fondly of this bittersweet time they've been given. "In all honesty you've helped me."

"Then stay. Here. It took me a long time to realize I'm not a monster. You aren't one either. I think…I know you could be happy here."

"You've been spending too much time with the Savior." She scoffs, rolling her eyes. Her vision is flickering and she's feeling light headed. "This isn't my home." Besides she always suffers alone; and she must suffer. That is her price. Losing Robin had been torture but to know she will lose Daniel too, perhaps this is her final due. Perhaps after this…she laughs mirthlessly at the thought that she could ever be happy.

"Ms. Swan perhaps you and the pirate could stop chit-chatting and return through the portal before I trap you here with the reindeer." The Savior grumbles something under her breath but complies before jumping through the portal.

"Goodbye Elsa," says Regina as Daniel moves to welcome her back to their realm.

"Goodbye Regina."

* * *

He asks to go to his grave and Regina almost says no. No she will not taking the melting man to his grave. No she will not let go of his hand that is slowly turning to slush between her fingers. No she will not part with the one person in her life that has never failed her. It's cruel to think but apart from death Daniel has never said a mean-spirited word to her, never questioned her affections, never run off with another woman. Daniel is the one spot in her life where no one else has right to tred and once he's gone she'll go back to being the person always on the outside looking in. Always fighting and fighting with nothing to show for it. Always going back to an empty house, an empty castle, an empty vault, an empty life.

_"Your heart will find its way to happiness."_

Cruel, empty words. Her heart betrayed her. Led her to a man that could never be her happiness; at least not in this time. But regardless last rights are sacred things so she takes Daniel along the edge of the meadow where they rode together to his plaque underneath a lovely maple tree, and with her final ounce of magic she produces a bench for them to sit upon. It's an idyllic spot and would suit the living Daniel of summer freckles, windswept hair, and hay specked clothes but for this cold stableboy it seems forbidding and with its sunshine and warm breezes.

"It's lovely." His fingers squish in her hold as Regina struggles to retain some semblance of control over her emotions. "You knew me well." His wet cheek rests on her head a final parting comfort. "I think you're closer to happiness then you know. This is your realm, your home, it's not the Enchanted Forest let it be what you make it."

She breaks away from Daniel's shoulder and stares up at his dripping nose and into his drooping features. "But Daniel…!" He holds her gaze for a long minute before breaking away to peek at something over her shoulder interrupting her,

"No more words Regina." He kisses her forehead. "But please close your eyes I don't want you to see me like this." But she doesn't she stares forward, eyes trained on the tree trunk, ears listening to the birds sing in its branches, Daniel's watery fingers losing more and more definition between hers as she imprints this tragedy into her memory. She absorbs every minute detail for this is something she will carry with her always a warning; a memory seared into her brain to remind her of what she can never have.

It only takes about thirty long minutes before Regina sits on the bench, right hand resting in a puddle but something else hedges on the edge of her consciousness, another hand is fiercely gripping her left, calloused and firm and warm, so unlike Daniel's. She's missed warmth. She's missed this.

She peeks at Robin from the corner of her eye. How he got there is beyond her. He's still wearing his winter jacket, but his crossbow rests at his feet. She doesn't deserve this but he came on his own and no one has really explained this soulmate thing - for there is an ache that rests deep in her chest that inexplicably feels lighter at his presence.

"I don't want it to hurt anymore." She sighs. "Stay with me. Just stay...I don't need love." She can accept friendship, she can accept never loving and being loved in return, but she doesn't want to be alone anymore.

"I'll stay, but I can't promise you the other." He lifts their joined hands and brushes a kiss against the back of hers. "Some things are beyond plans."

"Love is patient but it's not kind Robin."

"It's all a matter of timing, Regina"

An understanding settles between the pair. On that bench, on that day, he stays and neither of them hurts quite as much as before. Decisions will come later, consequences will be dealt with later because today she stays too.

She stays Regina.


End file.
